Bella has been a volunteer tutor for three years.
Read about her volunteer journey with Weave.
Bella is a primary school teacher who has lived in Sydney her whole life. She loves travelling, and has volunteered both locally and overseas.
Bella first connected to Weave three years ago, after coming back from a trip.
“Once I came back from India, I wanted to do more volunteering within the community. My brother did an internship at Weave and put me on to them.”
After reaching out to Weave, she found out about the Tutoring Program, and has been volunteering there ever since.
“I have two students I see every week,” she explains. “Together we do their homework, practice any areas they want to improve (i.e timetables, reading etc), and if they have a project or assignment coming up we work together to complete it, and always finish with a game.”
“I love working with children and teaching, so the Tutoring Program suited my interests. I love being able to help students with their learning, and I love seeing the improvements.”
– Bella volunteers for Weave’s Tutoring Program and loves working with her two students.
Bella has also learnt from her students in turn. “I think my favourite memory is from when one of my students taught me to play chess,” she says. “We played every week at the end of our session. After 8 months I finally beat him — but only once!”
For Bella, community is at the core of volunteering:
“I love the community of Weave and the relationships I have formed with the students and the people who work there, sharing the little victories my kids have with their learning. The best part of my week is coming to my tutoring sessions.”
“You don’t have to be a teacher or a genius to tutor,” she continues. “You work through the problems together and problem solve and teach the kids this.
“You gain so much from the relationships with the students and you’ll find yourself looking forward to the session every week. You feel an amazing sense of community at Weave as everyone who works there is happy and giving.”